February 2001

[Le Monde diplomatique <dispatch@Monde-diplomatique.fr>]

   Le Monde diplomatique 
   
                         -----------------------------------------------------
   
   
                               February 2001
                                      
     
LEADER

The changing face of separatism

by IGNACIO RAMONET

           <http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/en/2001/02/01quebec>
     
                                                  Translated by Ed Emery
     
     
OBSESSED WITH SECURITY

Bowling alone, policing together *

by ERIC KLINENBERG

     President Chirac has chosen security as one of the right's main
     campaign issues in the March municipal elections, confirming the
     growing political importance of the topic for the western
     countries. People are worried about delinquency and cities in
     crisis but government officials and spin doctors are playing down
     the underlying economic and social factors. Instead, they are
     increasing police powers or, as in the United States, directing
     civic action towards social control and voluntary policing.
     
                                                Original text in English
     
     
UN-BACKED COVER UP

Deafening silence on depleted uranium *

by ROBERT JAMES PARSONS

     In spite of the growing number of unexplained deaths and illnesses
     among servicemen returning from the Gulf, Bosnia and Kosovo, UN
     agencies have, to different degrees, cast a veil of silence over
     the chemical and radiological hazards of depleted uranium. It was
     not until this January that the World Health Organisation proposed
     a study of DU's effects on the peoples of the Gulf region.
     
                                         Translated by Malcolm Greenwood
     
The chemical effects of DU

by JACQUES BRILLOT

           <http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/en/2001/02/04uraniumeffects>
     
                                         Translated by Malcolm Greenwood
     
     
REVERSING THE RULES OF NEGOTIATION

Israeli withdrawal is the precondition for peace *

by HENRY SIEGMAN

     With the election of Ariel Sharon as Israel's new prime minister
     and the intifada in its fifth month, the risks to Middle East peace
     are all too clear. The gaps between the Israelis and Palestinians
     were already wide on all the major issues: the nature of the
     sovereignty of the future Palestinian state and its territorial
     continuity, the scope of Israeli withdrawal from the occupied
     territories, the future of the settlements, the status of Jerusalem
     and the holy places, the future of the Palestinian refugees and
     recognition of their right of return. The precondition for any
     future peacemaking is now no less than Israel's unilateral
     withdrawal from the occupied territories.
     
                                                Original text in English
     
     
THE EMIRS IN THE INTERNET ERA

Dubai, a sheikhdom happy to embrace globalisation

by DAVID HIRST

     Without the oil reserves of its wealthier neighbours, Dubai is a
     flourishing sheikhdom. Its success rests largely on its position as
     an intercontinental crossroads - and also on an immigration
     population whose size raises questions that its leaders would
     rather ignore.
     
           <http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/en/2001/02/06dubai>
     
                                                Original text in English
     
     
TELEVISION'S BIG PICTURE

Russia through the small screen

by our special correspondents SYLVIE BRAIBANT and CAROLE SIGMAN

     For more than a year a judicial and financial soap opera has played
     out in Russia's courts and media over NTV, Russia's only privately
     owned national television network. Its former head is fighting
     extradition from Spain and its journalists fear that President
     Putin intends to stifle freedom of speech. The attention that the
     battle for NTV and its parent company has attracted is symptomatic
     of the importance television plays in Russian political life and
     the passions it arouses in viewers.
     
           <http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/en/2001/02/07russia>
     
                                             Translated by Luke Sandford
     
     
THE PRICE OF EU ACCESSION

Poland counts the cost *

by BRUNO DRWESKI

     The Poles expected economic dividends from their political courage
     in being the first to break free from communism, helping to release
     the West from the costly Soviet threat and paving the way for
     German reunification. Yet now they are being asked to foot the bill
     for joining Nato and taking on board the acquis communautaire, the
     accumulated legislation of the EU.
     
                                            Translated by Barbara Wilson
     
     
MAN'S NEW ESTATE

The individual in disarray *

by DANY-ROBERT DUFOUR

     In an article entitled "The essence of neoliberalism", published in
     English translation by Le Monde diplomatique in December 1998,
     Pierre Bourdieu suggested that neoliberalism is a programme for
     "destroying collective structures" and promoting a new order based
     on the cult of the "lone, but free individual". The claim that
     neoliberalism aims at the ruin of long-standing collective
     entities, such as trade unions and political structures, and even
     culture itself, is persuasive, and Bourdieu's analysis is strong on
     this point. But the argument needs to be taken further. In
     destroying collective entities, can neoliberalism conceivably leave
     the individual intact?
     
                                              Translated by Barry Smerin
     
     
SOUTH AMERICA'S HOSTAGES AND VICTIMS

Narco-trafficking and war in the Andes *

by our special correspondent MAURICE LEMOINE

     In September 1999 the Clinton administration and Colombia's
     President Pastrana agreed to implement Plan Colombia aiming to
     eradicate cocaine production. Drafted in English under the watchful
     eye of the US State Department without consulting Congress, the
     plan shows what awaits the continent: military offensives against
     guerrillas (though not against the paramilitaries who also profit
     from narco-trafficking), peasants condemned to poverty, arable land
     destroyed.
     
                                              Translated by Julie Stoker
     
Peru pays

M. L.

           <http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/en/2001/02/11peru>
     
                                              Translated by Julie Stoker
     
     
IN SEARCH OF JUSTICE

International law and the developing world *

by MONIQUE CHEMILLIER-GENDREAU

                                              Translated by Julie Stoker
     
Why are Israel's offenders ignored?

M. CH-G

           <http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/en/2001/02/13israelcase>
     
                                        Translated by Wendy Kristianasen
     
Universal values

M. CH-G

           <http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/en/2001/02/14universalvalues>
     
                                        Translated by Wendy Kristianasen
     
     
MIRROR OF A SOCIETY IN TRANSITION

Nigeria's flourishing home-video industry *

by JEAN-CHRISTOPHE SERVANT

     In an increasingly divided Nigeria the struggle to control the
     country's oil riches continues. Early last year there were
     religious riots in the north and private militias are becoming
     increasingly common in the south. Despite US support, the new
     civilian government is finding it hard to exert its authority. Yet,
     despite the crisis, there is no lack of drive in society as can be
     seen from the boom in the home video industry.
     
                                             Translated by Harry Forster
     
     
NEW CAPITALISM, NEW ISOLATION

A flexible city of strangers

by RICHARD SENNETT

     Once people used to come to the city in search of anonymity,
     diversity and the freedom to meet others. Cities were also places
     of collective struggle and solidarity. Now, just as the workplace
     is affected by a new system of flexible working, so the city, too,
     risks losing its charm as businesses and architecture become
     standardised and impersonal.
     
           <http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/en/2001/02/16cities>
     
                                                Original text in English
     
     
WHY THE HAGUE CONFERENCE FAILED

Lobbies derail climate accord *

by AGNÈS SINAI

     Venice destroyed by water, Bangladesh submerged, the Maldives wiped
     off the map in less than 100 years? This is not an apocalyptic
     horror story but a scientific hypothesis of the outcome of climate
     change. The resounding failure of the UN conference in The Hague
     last November means that the atmosphere's temperature will continue
     to rise. At least until the next attempt at an agreement, at a
     re-run of the conference to be held in Bonn this spring.
     
                                         Translated by Malcolm Greenwood
     
Why we need Kyoto

by Agnès Sinaï

           <http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/en/2001/02/18kyotoconf>
     
                                         Translated by Malcolm Greenwood
     
     
HERE FICTION HAS THE FORCE OF REALITY

Imagination and the fifth dimension *

by EDWARD BOND

     There is no innate or transcendental "humanness" to fall back on in
     times of crisis. It is not secured by Gods or genes. Humanness is
     created by imagination in the fifth dimension, the gap. Where
     fiction has the force of reality.
     
                                                Original text in English
     
     _________________________________________________________________

     (*) Star-marked articles are available to paid subscribers only.

     Yearly subscription fee: 24 US $ (Institutions 48 US $).

       ______________________________________________________________

       For more information on our English edition, please visit

                 http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/en/

       To subscribe to our free "dispatch" mailing-list, send an
       (empty) e-mail to:
            dispatch-on@monde-diplomatique.fr

       To unsubscribe from this list, send an (empty) e-mail to:
            dispatch-off@monde-diplomatique.fr

   
   
   
          English language editorial director: Wendy Kristianasen
     _________________________________________________________________
   
           ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 1997-2001 Le Monde diplomatique

<http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/en/2001/02/>


_______________________________________________
Nettime-bold mailing list
Nettime-bold@nettime.org
http://www.nettime.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nettime-bold